FBI Used Etsy, LinkedIn To Track Down Protester Accused Of Setting Cop Car Ablaze

TOPLINE

Investigators at the FBI tracked down and arrested 33-year-old Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal — who allegedly set fire to a police vehicle at a protest in Philadelphia on May 30 — by tracing her digital footprints, which included Etsy purchases and her LinkedIn profile, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday.

KEY FACTS

Top Critic

“Social media has fueled much of the protests and has also become a fertile ground for government surveillance,” said Paul Hetznecker, who has organized a group of lawyers to represent demonstrators, including Blumenthal. “You don’t necessarily draw information on every piece of straw to find the one needle in the haystack you’re looking for. The question is whether they’ve undermined the privacy interests of everyone based on the search for one or two individuals,” he added.

Key Background

Philadelphia and other major cities across the United States have seen large-scale protests following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The largely decentralized movement has been driven with the help of social media and people have taken to platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to broadcast and record videos and images of the protest. Multiple videos and “super-cuts” depicting aggressive actions against the protestors by the police have gone viral social media. Federal and various local authorities have urged citizens to share any videos that captured acts of violence.